


Head in the Clouds, Heart in the Stars

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F, every song is a Malvie song I don't make the rules
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-13
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-22 05:58:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14302308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: A story set to “Rewrite the Stars” by Zendaya and Zac Efron, where an unlikely love between Mal and Evie struggles to bloom in a land where hate conquers all





	Head in the Clouds, Heart in the Stars

_[[Rewrite the Stars]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdjR2lvIfJ4) _

* * *

It wasn't supposed to happen. The daughter of malevolence and the daughter of evil, raised in a prison of greed, treachery, corruption. A floating rock in a turbulent sea where all that could be good and pure was stamped out, crushed under the end of a scepter or the point of a heeled shoe. Here was a land where stars were only legend, sunny days and clean breezes as well. Even the dirt grew only weeds, not flowers; the cracks in the sidewalk pavement showed a dark and twisted world like the cracks in a shattered mirror.

All was lost on the Isle of the Lost, everything decent and wholesome that could slip easily through the fingers. Only the evil remained, and only the sin prevailed. The hearts of The Isle's denizens were cold, blackened things, capable only of holding hate and malice, showing ill will and contempt towards one another.

With the daughter of malevolence and the daughter of evil raised to follow in their mothers' footsteps, stepping on each and every one of those sidewalk cracks along the way, it shouldn't have happened. Mal had a future as the worst villain in the land, scourge of kingdoms and families and all things noble. Evie had a future along a trail of hearts torn right from their bodies, feeble minds and even more feeble wills broken under her seductive gaze, the curl of her painted lips. Riches and treasures were to be thrown at her feet by the princes of Auradon, Evie herself a different form of scourge to the kingdom and every kingdom beyond.

Mal and Evie were meant to be the worst of the worst, their hearts and souls not just black, but onyx. It was all they ever knew, all they had ever been shown. So it wasn't supposed to happen.

They weren't supposed to fall in love.

Schemes turned into stolen glances. Threats turned into touches. Time together and time marching on wore holes through them, where things they'd never known and never experienced somehow seeped through. Mal had never seen a smile, and never knew it could be instinctual—small, and cautious, a smile barely even there, but instinctual nonetheless. Evie didn't know laughter, laughter led to wrinkles and wrinkles would not ensnare hapless royalty. But the things Mal learned to say to her, they brought laughter irregardless.

Yet smiles and laughter were like pinpoints of light cutting through the dark of The Isle, and such light couldn't go unnoticed by several beady, squinting pairs of eyes. Villains talked, and they talked cruelly; there wasn't much else to do on The Isle. All it took was the first few whispers for Mal to again long for threats over touch, to retreat back into both her lair and her layers where it was safe for her to be. Mother could never find out, Maleficent couldn't see or even  _hear_  that Mal had not only been feeling affection, but showing it to another. She wanted to retreat, all right, but she did so into a secret hideaway, a messy and graffitied loft guarded by a watchful gate where she and Evie could disappear from the beady and squinting eyes with just the toss of a rock.

Mal saw the gaping holes in her walls and scrambled to board them back up, or at least throw herself in front of them when denizens came scuffling by so they couldn't see the weakness, couldn't exploit it, couldn't let word get back to Maleficent. But Evie? Evie must have had a defective heart, for the touches of kindness and warmth that brightened its charcoal corners were more than welcome to stay. She stood steadfast at Mal's side as they walked those cracked Isle streets, trying to hold on to touch where Mal was trying to turn it back into threats. A pinky softly curling around Mal's was shot with pain when Mal brusquely yanked her hand away. The same pain shot through that defective heart of Evie's as vicious minds jumped to all the right conclusions when eyes spotted Mal and Evie together, perhaps just a little too close for comfort, before Mal abruptly dismissed herself from Evie's side and hurried off without a word.

The Isle and all that it stood for was tearing them apart before they even truly came together, before some strange powers working above and beyond the cloudy haze of The Isle could snuff out the darkness and bring two dreaded daughters together in love and promise.

Mal had been making one of her infamous retreats to the hideout when she heard the telltale clunk of a rock down below, the ancient and screeching grind of the gate as it lifted to let its visitor up the rusted stairway. There were only two who knew the "Danger: Flying Rocks" sign was the key to the top, and seeing as one was already inside the hideout spray painting the walls, it took no genius to know the other was marching up the steps in a pair of blue boots.

"...I've been looking for you."

Evie's voice broke the steady hiss from Mal's can of spray paint. The Isle had dirges where Auradon had symphonies, but still Mal sometimes caught herself imagining that Evie's voice must be what a symphony sounded like. It was that exact thought she caught herself thinking in that very moment, roughly clearing it away with a shake of her head and a shake of her paint can.

"You shouldn't have been," she told Evie.

"...Couldn't help it," Evie shrugged, going down the few steps by the stained glass windows to come further into the hideout. "I wanted to see you."

"Again, you shouldn't have."

Evie sighed heavily, like every inch, every molecule was overcome with exhaustion.

"Mal, aren't you tired of running from me? It's like, everytime I turn around, you're gone. Vanished.  _Hiding._  You're supposed to run this whole island, since when do you hide from it?"

"Since you," Mal snapped, shooting a glare over her shoulder before going back to her graffiti.

Evie took a seat on the sofa, on the side where rusted springs didn't painfully poke through the cushions.

"...This isn't easy for us, M. Believe me, I know it. Feelings aren't allowed on The Isle, especially the ones that we have."

"Especially with the mothers that we have," Mal grumbled, partly adding, partly correcting.

"But with everything bad on The Isle, don't you think it's nice to have something good between us?"

Spray can running empty, Mal tossed it aside with a huff, its clattering echoing loudly through the hideout.

"Don't you get it, Evie?" she whirled around on her feet, eyes hard and stony like the jade they held within. "I'm Mal. I'm the daughter of Maleficent. I am not supposed to have nice thoughts, or feel anything good. I'm not supposed to fall in love! And neither are you!!"

"...No, I'm not," Evie clasped her hands together, looking down at her nails. "Not for real, anyway. But I guess the mark of a good villain is not doing what you're supposed to do."

"I'm supposed to take over and rule Auradon, Evie. Not skip through the weeds holding hands with you and singing songs."

Ice cold. The chill in Mal's voice was dangerous.

"...That's what your mother says you're supposed to do, M," Evie risked a cautious glance up at her. "But what do  _you_ want to do?"

No one had ever asked her that before. No one ever had a mind to, for the only person on The Isle that Mal answered to had no care or concern for what she wanted and needed.

"Just stop it, alright?" Mal demanded, storming over to the couch. "This is pointless, and you know it. You and I are  _pointless._ There's no love on The Isle, Evie, no room for it. We can't be  _anything_ here, because the second we are is the second people talk, and if my mother finds out about any of this?? I don't think I have to tell you what that means."

Evie could feel Mal's harsh gaze burning into her and kept her head ducked down, unable to meet it.

"So drop it, Evie," Mal said with finality. "Forget about us, and whatever it is that we have. It's not happening."

The space where a stiff silence would normally hang was broken by the angry sounds of Mal storming through the hideout, digging through junk and clutter to find another can of spray paint.

"...I can't forget about us, Mal," Evie whispered.  

Her defective heart thumped in her chest, fueled by those bright lights of feeling that came from being with Mal. Even if she was with her less and less nowadays, still she clung to the memories of smiles, laughter, sneaking her hand into Mal's. She clung to those in all her optimism where Mal only clung to memories of the eyes threatening to catch them, sneering lips threatening to get word back to Maleficent that something other than evil was flaring between her daughter and the queen's daughter.

Evie never knew she wanted so much more out of life until she found it with Mal, until Mal with her artistic touch painted a different picture of Evie's future, one without broken hearts shattered endlessly at her feet and only cold, dead jewelry to keep her company at night. The money, the wealth, the castles, all of it was her mother's idea, her mother's grand scheme. Evie was coming to find something very different in the cards for herself, something she imagined was traced in the legendary stars that cruelly hid out of sight and out of reach beyond the fog of The Isle.

Not just love, but a whole lifetime of it. Waiting for the both of them just outside that fog if Mal would only dare to take Evie's hand and break through the clouds with her.

 _"You know I want you...it's not a secret I try to hide,"_ Evie softly sang.  _"I know you want me...so don't keep saying our hands are tied."_

There was the symphony that Mal always pictured, Evie's voice alone a song all in itself that stopped both her feet and her heart in their tracks for just the briefest of seconds. There was no magic on The Isle, but still it fell over her like a spell, one she stubbornly shook off after coming back to her senses, refusing to fall under Evie's magic. Evie rose to her feet, eyes instantly finding Mal across the room and fixating on her in all her distracted rummaging through the hideout.

_"You claim it's not in the cards and fate is pulling you miles away, and out of reach from me."_

Evie wouldn't let that fate keep them out of reach, hurrying over to Mal like she would disappear forever if Evie didn't get to her in time.

_"But you're here in my heart, so who can stop me if I decide that you're my destiny?"_

A hand on Mal's shoulder turned her around, where cold green met soft brown as Mal steeled herself in every way not to waiver under the smile Evie was giving her, the desperate and hopeful thing that was responsible for the holes in Mal's walls more than anything else.

 _"What if we rewrite the stars? Say you were made to be mine?"_  Evie pleaded, voice like a gentle wind that could only be imagined in a place like The Isle.  _"Nothing could keep us apart, you'd be the one I was meant to find."_

A sick joke, perhaps, thinking that Mal could be anyone's anything. She shrugged out from Evie's touch the way they'd both grown accustomed to, storming away like she wouldn't listen to the music of that symphony any longer. Evie was showing a habit of never being deterred, perhaps her thin royal blood always bent on getting its way, and followed right after Mal, footstep after footstep.

 _"It's up to you, and it's up to me, no one can say what we get to be,"_  Evie ran her fingers through Mal's hair, a soft touch they'd learned together.  _"So why don't we rewrite the stars? Maybe the world could be ours...tonight."_

Mal almost slipped up and lost herself in Evie's touch, eyes threatening to close and embrace what she'd missed for so long, but she came out of it with a stinging slap of reality. There was no world to be made theirs, for the only world they had was The Isle.

And on The Isle, there were no stars.

She made her escape from the dangerous reach of Evie's arms, circling the room and putting a barrier of the couch between them.

 _"You think it's easy?"_ Mal demanded.  _"You think I don't want to run to you?"_

She ran to the windows instead, where through the grungy colored glass she could just make out the shape of the wasteland expanses of The Isle stretching before them.

 _"But there are mountains...and there are doors that we can't walk through,"_ Mal turned from the window to a spot on the wall painted with Evie's image, running a hand along the shape of her.  _"I know you're wondering why, because we're able to be just you and me within these walls. But when we go outside, you're gonna wake up and see that it was hopeless after all."_

She whirled around, hot tears welling up in her eyes for Evie to see. Mal, crying. A weakness of those crumbling walls shining through.

_"No one can rewrite the stars, how can you say you'll be mine? Everything keeps us apart, and I'm not the one you were meant to find."_

Mal viciously shook her head like she was trying to shake reality away, trying to let go and forget she was ever in this dilemma in the first place, that she had ever made the mistake of learning to feel. At the sight of Mal's tears Evie came running, coming to hold Mal around the waist and press her forehead against hers, closing her eyes with shaky breaths and trying to keep from crying herself...closing her eyes and trying to commit to memory what it felt like to hold Mal just like this.

 _"It's not up to you,"_  Mal insisted.  _"It's not up to me, when everyone tells us what we can be."_

All she could do was run, fight herself out of Evie's arms and fight to put distance between them lest they give in to things that they shouldn't.

 _"How can we rewrite the stars? Say that the world can be ours...tonight?"_  Mal's voice cracked, like a crack of thunder to her own ears.

And then she was gone.

Racing out of the hideout, fruitlessly trying to leave Evie behind even when she knew Evie would only take off after her. Feet clanked on the metal landing outside as Mal found her way to the ladder hanging all the way down to the street, and Evie watched her start to climb.

 _"All I want is to fly with you!"_ the two sang together, desperate wishes breaking free from both their hearts at the same time.

Evie reached a hand out to Mal, urging her off the ladder and to her side, but Mal would have no part in it, hanging tight and skipping the rungs entirely to slide down out of reach as fast as she could.

 _"All I want is to fall with you!"_  their two voices came together again as the space between them grew farther apart.

Mal knew it made no sense, for her body to run while her lips sang longings to be by Evie's side. But none of it made sense to her, her cruel and closed heart finding so many things in Evie she never even knew existed. Her feet hit the pavement with a thud, and a stumble at her speed cost her her balance. It was one of Evie's many regrets, to not be able to catch Mal when she fell, and she hurried down the ladder to get to her.

She fell to her knees beside Mal, eyes searching through the pain on her face to see if she'd been hurt in ways other than the heart. A stolen glance, a touch, Evie clasping a hand around Mal's and pulling her back to her feet.

 _"So just give me all of you..."_  they sang.

 _"It feels impossible,"_ Mal cried.

 _"It's not impossible,"_  Evie held both of Mal's hands tight.

_"Is it impossible?"_

_"Say that it's possible,"_  they both told each other what they wanted, needed to hear.

Then walls collapsed entirely, fear burned away as they became lost in each other's eyes, all things good and pure that were shut out of The Isle and choked in its smoggy haze came flooding over them, drowning them as they stood hand in hand.

And then they were dancing.

_"How do we rewrite the stars? Say you were made to be mine?"_

Hearts that were heavy started to soar as Mal and Evie spun in each other's arms, the street below the hideout becoming their own private dancefloor.

_"Nothing can keep us apart, 'cause you are the one I was meant to find!"_

Mal smiled, like the sun finally breaking through the island clouds and lighting up every darkened corner that she and Evie came to hide in. Auradon's stories boasted that good was stronger than evil, a concept sneered and scoffed at by the villains that was proving itself true as Evie had Mal by the hand, twirling her like a graceful ballerina atop a stage.

_"It's up to you, and it's up to me...no one can say what we get to be."_

Not Maleficent, and not the Evil Queen. If the love in their hearts was truly stronger than the evil in their mothers', Mal and Evie no longer had anything to fear with their footsteps waltzing along the broken pavement.

_"Why don't we rewrite the stars, changing the world to be ours?"_

They slowed to a stop in the middle of the street, dizzy for reasons that had nothing to do with spinning. And suddenly, so very suddenly, they found themselves the closest they'd ever been. Hands around each other's waists, half-lidded eyes intently watching each other's lips. Like magnets drawn and tugged, they leaned in to one another, one of the most forbidden of things hanging in the air between them as Evie brushed her lips against Mal's once, twice, giving herself the courage to go all the way.

But then Mal felt more than just Evie's eyes on her. She felt gazes from the shadows burning into her like dragonfire, the sting of harsh whispers and gossiping words against her skin. She and Evie weren't in a world of their own, or on their own private dancefloor. They were in the middle of The Isle, in each other's embrace, one forbidden kiss away from igniting riot and ruin from an already ruinous populace.

They couldn't do this. Mal was out of her mind to let herself get swept up in a silly song and believe that they could. Slowly, stiffly, robotically, she pushed Evie's hands off of her, taking a step back and driving another ever-invisible wedge between them. There were no stars on The Isle. Nothing for them to take a pencil to and try to rewrite.

 _"...You know I want you...it's not a secret I try to hide,"_ Mal breathed, casting her eyes down, refusing to look at Evie's face.  _"But I can't have you...we're bound to break, and my hands are tied."_

Mal backed away, fighting off the threat of any more tears with so many glares trained on her.

"...Mal, please," Evie begged.

"...I can't, Evie.  _We_ can't. So just...just let it go."

As Mal retreated, this time Evie did not follow.

There were no stars on The Isle, no twinkling lights above shining the way through even the deepest darkness. The girls lived under a cloud of smoke, a cloud of heavy reality—they were powerless within that prison, under the dome of an all-encompassing barrier blocking out more than just magic. Cursed were the daughters born to malevolence and evil, cursed to follow the same dark path their mothers did before them, no way out and no way back. In a land built on lies and sustained by lies, Mal and Evie discovered one sole truth that day on the street.

Love could not ever live on the Isle of the Lost. It simply wasn't in the stars.


End file.
